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As I mentioned in an earlier post, in my copious free time I blog for Marketing Magazine. I've just posted an entry about those 'sweepstake prize' DM letters which continue to plague mailboxes today. While this type of DM has been around for 20 years or more, I really can't believe there's still an audience out there that are naive enough to fall for these type of offers.
With a lousy use of personalisation together with misleading offers, I'm concerned that the target audience (almost exclusively pensioners) are being exploited to ultimately make a purchasing decision to buy products that they probably don't need or want.
Read the full story on marketingmag.com.au »
Posted on Friday, 13 June 2008 at 2:54 PM | TrackBack: http://www.veedeepee.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/153
Eliot,
Interesting position. But it can tell you that they work as well as if not better than ever. And while the personalization may not be obvious, the use of sophisticated segmentation, relevancy and testing may certainly be taking place.
We do some work with the largest, 'You may already be a winner', sweepstakes company here in the states. Even they are sometimes astonished as to what works and what doesn't work. They deal with over 100 individual segment profiles and are experts at multi-variant testing to optimize these segment 'packages'. They do over 750 MILLION piece per year and have hoards of test data to back up their designs. The designs work, the use of courier works, the sweepstakes and everything you mention works. There a lot of naive people, at least here in the states.
We have helped by generating map directions as a test of personalization and relevancy. The idea is to include a sheet that lists the turn by turn directions from a florist near you to your house when we come to deliver your prize with a dozen roses. Our work with large volume route maps allows us to deliver direction sets for them. For tests, we are talking about over 1 million in a run. They have seen 20-40 percent lift in orders just based on this type of personalization.
So I am with you, it is hard to believe these type of mailings work. But they do.
Jeff
Posted by Jeff Stewart on Saturday, 14 June 2008 at 3:01 AM
Jeff,
Thanks for your feedback. I'm sure this DM works to some level, which is why it keeps coming, but I'm certainly surprised at the level of success that you mention in the US. Maybe it's a geographical thing. I'd be curious to compare response rates in other countries.
I remember the first time I received a sweepstake letter, I was so excited. I fell for the convincing typewritten letter, voucher and all. I couldn't wait to mail-in my claim coupon and was naturally surprised and disappointed when I didn't receive my winnings.
But that was 22 years ago and I was 11 years old. Back then, computers were scarce and electronic typewriters were commonplace in the workplace, so maybe I can be forgiven for falling for this DM, given my age and era. I assumed it's a different story today, so I'm utterly amazed to learn that this call-to-action and deceiving creative actually still cuts through!
Eliot
Posted by Eliot Harper on Saturday, 14 June 2008 at 1:38 PM
reminds me of a terrible DM piece for possibly the worst credit card in America I got whilst at RIT. it wasn't the sloppy fake-Courier and fake handwriting that infuriated me so much as the witless, condescending copy that assumed the mark had about a 3rd-grade education. shred.
Posted by david broudy on Tuesday, 17 June 2008 at 1:31 PM